The soil microclimate and microbial characteristics jointly drive the response of vegetation productivity to changes in snow cover - A global meta-analysis.

Recent climate warming has greatly shaped snow-cover patterns globally. Variances in snow cover are expected to affect soil microclimate and microorganisms, which may cause vegetation productivity to vary. However, exactly how snow cover influences the productivity of terrestrial vegetation remains unclear.

Water use efficiency in tropical plants based on a set of newly created leaf photosynthesis-related parameters.

Water use efficiency (WUE) quantifies the amount of water expended per unit of dry leaf matter accumulated, reflecting the trade-offs between water consumption and carbon uptake. It is also a critical parameter for understanding plant responses to environmental changes. This study introduced an innovative set of WUE-related parameters, including maximum water use efficiency (WUE) and associated coefficients of water potential, loss, strategic usage, and total usage (WPC, WLC, WSC, and WTC, respectively) in providing a comprehensive evaluation of water use strategies in 48 common tropical plant species during the natural light fluctuations.

Long-term trend and interannual variation in evapotranspiration of a young temperate Douglas-fir stand over 2002-2022 reveals the impacts of climate change.

The shortage of decades-long continuous measurements of ecosystem processes limits our understanding of how changing climate impacts forest ecosystems. We used continuous eddy-covariance and hydrometeorological data over 2002-2022 from a young Douglas-fir stand on Vancouver Island, Canada to assess the long-term trend and interannual variability in evapotranspiration (ET) and transpiration (T). Collectively, annual T displayed a decreasing trend over the 21 years with a rate of 1% yr, which is attributed to the stomatal downregulation induced by rising atmospheric CO concentration.

Assessing watershed-scale impacts of best management practices and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on water yield.

Changes in water yield are influenced by many intersecting biophysical elements, including climate, on-land best management practices, and landcover. Large-scale reductions in water yield may present a significant threat to water supplies globally. Many of these intersecting factors are intercorrelated and confounded, making it challenging to separate the factors' individual contributions to shaping local streamflow dynamics.

Impacts of re-vegetation on soil water dynamics in a semiarid region of Northwest China.

Understanding how vegetation (shrub) cover in drylands affects local-to-regional soil water dynamics and associated water balances is of immense importance because of the abundance of afforestation projects worldwide. Vegetation's role in the control of soil water presents a particular challenge to soil water storage (SWS) management in the drylands of China. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a two-year study in the Mu Us Desert of northwest China.

Vegetation-cover control of between-site soil temperature evolution in a sandy desertland.

Vegetation has an important influence on soil temperature (ST). However, the possible effects of surface vegetation on ST and their feedback on microclimate remain uncertain due to the lack of in-situ and long-term environmental records, especially for arid and semiarid regions of the world. A continuous, two-year study was implemented over a bare sand dune (BF) and two scrub-vegetation sites of variable cover in the Mu Us Desert of northwest China.

Temporal heterogeneity in photosystem II photochemistry in under a fluctuating desert environment.

Acclimation strategies in xerophytic plants to stressed environmental conditions vary with temporal scales. Our understanding of environmentally-induced variation in photosystem II (PSII) processes as a function of temporal scales is limited, as most studies have thus far been based on short-term, laboratory-controlled experiments. In a study of PSII processes, we acquired near-continuous, field-based measurements of PSII-energy partitioning in a dominant desert-shrub species, namely , over a six-year period from 2012-2017.

Photosynthetic parameters and stomatal conductance in attached and detached balsam fir foliage.

Leaf level gas-exchange measurements can be made on detached foliage to address the challenge of access to the crown of tall trees. However, detachment may impact leaf gas exchange. This necessitates the study of gas-exchange characteristics of foliage on detached branches to assess the feasibility of using detached branches for gas-exchange analysis.

Conditional inference trees in the assessment of tree mortality rates in the transitional mixed forests of Atlantic Canada.

Long-term predictions of forest dynamics, including forecasts of tree growth and mortality, are central to sustainable forest-management planning. Although often difficult to evaluate, tree mortality rates under different abiotic and biotic conditions are vital in defining the long-term dynamics of forest ecosystems. In this study, we have modeled tree mortality rates using conditional inference trees (CTREE) and multi-year permanent sample plot data sourced from an inventory with coverage of New Brunswick (NB), Canada.

Production of high-resolution forest-ecosite maps based on model predictions of soil moisture and nutrient regimes over a large forested area.

Forest ecosite reflects the local site conditions that are meaningful to forest productivity as well as basic ecological functions. Field assessments of vegetation and soil types are often used to identify forest ecosites. However, the production of high-resolution ecosite maps for large areas from interpolating field data is difficult because of high spatial variation and associated costs and time requirements.

Incorporating interspecific competition into species-distribution mapping by upward scaling of small-scale model projections to the landscape.

There are a number of overarching questions and debate in the scientific community concerning the importance of biotic interactions in species distribution models at large spatial scales. In this paper, we present a framework for revising the potential distribution of tree species native to the Western Ecoregion of Nova Scotia, Canada, by integrating the long-term effects of interspecific competition into an existing abiotic-factor-based definition of potential species distribution (PSD). The PSD model is developed by combining spatially explicit data of individualistic species' response to normalized incident photosynthetically active radiation, soil water content, and growing degree days.

Evaluation of the applicability of the SWAT model in an arid piedmont plain oasis.

Hetao Oasis is located in a typical piedmont alluvial plain bounded by the Langshan Mountain Range in the north, desert in the west, and the Yellow River in the south. Agricultural activities within the oasis significantly impact the hydrological cycle and water quality in downstream locations. The research uses the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for a piedmont plain by defining the watershed boundary as coinciding with the natural mountain ridge, the border between the oasis and the desert, and the Yellow River.

A Novel Modelling Approach for Predicting Forest Growth and Yield under Climate Change.

Global climate is changing due to increasing anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. Forest managers need growth and yield models that can be used to predict future forest dynamics during the transition period of present-day forests under a changing climatic regime. In this study, we developed a forest growth and yield model that can be used to predict individual-tree growth under current and projected future climatic conditions.

Landscape variation in tree species richness in northern Iran forests.

Mapping landscape variation in tree species richness (SR) is essential to the long term management and conservation of forest ecosystems. The current study examines the prospect of mapping field assessments of SR in a high-elevation, deciduous forest in northern Iran as a function of 16 biophysical variables representative of the area's unique physiography, including topography and coastal placement, biophysical environment, and forests. Basic to this study is the development of moderate-resolution biophysical surfaces and associated plot-estimates for 202 permanent sampling plots.

Using the soil and water assessment tool to estimate achievable water quality targets through implementation of beneficial management practices in an agricultural watershed.

Runoff from crop production in agricultural watersheds can cause widespread soil loss and degradation of surface water quality. Beneficial management practices (BMPs) for soil conservation are often implemented as remedial measures because BMPs can reduce soil erosion and improve water quality. However, the efficacy of BMPs may be unknown because it can be affected by many factors, such as farming practices, land-use, soil type, topography, and climatic conditions.

A watershed-scale assessment of cost-effectiveness of sediment abatement with flow diversion terraces.

Soil conservation beneficial management practices (BMPs) are effective at controlling soil loss from farmlands and minimizing water pollution in agricultural watersheds. However, costs associated with implementing and maintaining these practices are high and often deter farmers from using them. Consequently, it is necessary to conduct cost-benefit analysis of BMP implementation to assist decision-makers with planning to provide the greatest level of environmental protection with limited resources and funding.

A Wetness Index Using Terrain-Corrected Surface Temperature and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Derived from Standard MODIS Products: An Evaluation of Its Use in a Humid Forest-Dominated Region of Eastern Canada.

In this paper we develop a method to estimate land-surface water content in amostly forest-dominated (humid) and topographically-varied region of eastern Canada. Theapproach is centered on a temperature-vegetation wetness index (TVWI) that uses standard 8-day MODIS-based image composites of land surface temperature (T) and surface reflectanceas primary input. In an attempt to improve estimates of TVWI in high elevation areas, terrain-induced variations in T are removed by applying grid, digital elevation model-basedcalculations of vertical atmospheric pressure to calculations of surface potential temperature(θS).

Carbon and biomass partitioning in balsam fir (Abies balsamea).

Balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill) was extensively sampled to investigate the effects of forest management practices, site location, within-crown position, tree component (i.e.